I have been to London just once when my sister was studying for work. At the time, we really enjoyed visiting Cambridge and Burton on the water in Cotswolds. I fell in love with the quaint English picturesque villages. So this time, we decided to make Cotswolds as the base for part of the trip. We stayed in Cirencester at the Old Brew House which stood the test of time from the 1700s when horse carriages were prevalent. Then we went to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare and visited his parents house. They enact plays there and I got to play the bystander that gets stabbed :). On the way back we visited Stow on the Wold and Bourton on the water, both really picturesque towns. The next day we headed to Stonehenge and Bath, each with their own historical significance. You almost felt like living through different times in history. On the 4th day we checked out and visited Bibury, another beautiful Cotswolds town. From there, we headed to Oxford. Support for Palestine was high with flags and they had fully occupied Radcliffe Camera. The campus is beautiful and the school was in session so we got to see the real deal with lots of students around. Then, we headed to Cambridge where we did punting on the river and saw the various colleges with their significance. It was quite the experience seeing Kings College and a bunch of other colleges.
We went to London for the last few days. First day, we went to Seven Sisters National Park in Eastbourne. The pebble beach with white cliffs is really unique and I haven't seen anything like it! The town of Eastbourne is a beautiful quaint town and the train ride was a lot of fun as well. We saw all the key sights in London like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge with opening and it was great. The only thing that was stressful was the Change of Guard ceremony with the crazy crowds. The shopping at Oxford Street was great for the family with Govindas being a highlight for vegetarian satvik food. I attended a Kirtan in the temple while the family shopped and it was really soothing. We also ate at Chokhi Dhani and Dishoom which was good too!
There was one major coincidence that I must talk about and that is meeting my sister in East London University when we were going to meet her the next day. It was really serendipitous and great to see her university.
Here is the itinerary for the whole trip.
June 1 - Drive to Cotswolds + rest day
June 2 - Cotswolds/Stratford upon Avon
June 3 - Stonehenge + Bath
June 4 - Go to Oxford + Cambridge
June 5 - Come to London from Cambridge
June 6 - Seven Sisters Eastbourne
June 7 - London
June 8 - London
June 9 - Fly back
